Intex on Wednesday unveiled a new version of its FitRist activity tracker, called FitRist Cardio. Adding heart rate tracking to the fitness band’s capabilities, Intex has made the FitRist Cardio available to buy exclusively via Amazon India in Black colour variant, with a price of Rs. 1,499. At its price, it takes on the Xiaomi Mi Band 2, which was launched at Rs. 1,999 last year with a heart rate sensor and OLED display.

The Intex FitRist Cardio fitness band sports a 2.18cm OLED display with a 96×32 pixels resolution, and it weighs about 26 grams. The company boasts of Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity on the activity tracker, with which it connects to Android (v4.4 and above) and iOS (v7.0 and above) smartphones. It can also receive OTA updates via a connected smartphone. The FitRist Cardio bears a 80mAh battery that’s rated to deliver up to 7 days of battery life. It is water resistant, and features a heart rate sensor, sleep monitor, hydration alarm, and a step/ calorie counter.

The company adds that the FitRist Cardio can provide Facebook, WhatsApp, and SMS message notifications. On Android phones, the fitness tracker will display incoming calls with caller ID, however, on iPhone models, the band will display the call icon if the contact is stored on the phone, and will display the phone number if the contact isn’t stored. The Intex FitRist Cardio also has an ‘anti-lost’ function that will help locate the fitness band if it gets lost.

Finally, Intex is also boasting of a couple of other features on the FitRist Cardio. Users can control their smartphone’s playlist with the MP3 control feature, while a remote shutter feature lets users control the camera of their connected smartphones to remotely click pictures.

Commenting on the launch,. Nidhi Markanday, Director & Business Head, Intex Technologies, said, “Since our entry into the wearable segment in 2015, with iRist Smart watch and FitRist band, Intex has been well received by the market and to enrich our bouquet of offerings, Intex FitRist Cardio has been designed to fulfil the needs and become a one-stop solution for those who take their fitness seriously.”

China’s Lenovo Group, the world’s largest personal computer maker, said its global PC unit shipments fell 1 percent in the year ending in March, against a market decline of 3 percent, as consumer demand continued its downward trend.

Lenovo blamed a 4 percent drop in total revenue to $43 billion (roughly Rs. 2,77,450 crores) on difficult macro environment, its own business transformation efforts, and component supply constraints in the second half of the year.

For the full year ended March, Lenovo posted a profit of $535 million (roughly Rs. 3,451 crores), reversing a loss of $128 million a year prior. The result compared with the $569 million average of 24 estimates.

According to market intelligence firm Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totalled 62.2 million units in the first quarter of 2017, the 10th consecutive quarterly decline and the first time since 2007 for the figure to drop below 63 million.

Lenovo said its worldwide PC market share for the full year rose 0.4 percentage point to a record high of 21.4 percent, though that is down from 22.4 percent in the previous quarter.

“Despite market conditions that will remain challenging in the short term, the Group exited the year with stronger organization allowing for sharper customer focus and more compelling product portfolio across all our business,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing said in a filing.

PC competition took a step up this week when China’s largest mobile phone maker, Huawei, said it would enter the market for premium consumer models.

Lenovo also competes with Huawei in mobile, which accounts for 18 percent of its revenue. The business’ loss widened to $566 million last year from $469 million a year prior on a 10 percent drop in revenue to $7.7 billion, though Lenovo said the business had strong growth in markets outside China, especially Latin America and Western Europe.

The company’s smaller data centre business, which includes servers and enterprise services, incurred a loss of $343 million, with revenue down 11 percent to $4.07 billion.

Yang said Lenovo’s core PC business remained solid, transformation for mobile businesses is on track, while it is accelerating efforts to improve its data centre business.

He said last week Lenovo will reorganise domestic operations in response to the changing PC industry. Lenovo China will split into two divisions: one focused on consumer PCs and smart devices, and the other on data centres.

Lenovo’s profit for the three months through March dropped 41 percent to $107 million. That beat the $93.8 million average of 11 analyst estimates in a Thomson Reuters poll.

Revenue rose 5 percent to $9.58 billion, against an estimate of $9.6 billion.

HIGHLIGHTS

Acer Nitro 5 is a budget gaming laptop releasing in July

Acer Spin 1 has also been upgraded with better specs

Two Iconia-branded Android 7.0 Nougat tablets also launched

Just ahead of Computex in Taipei, Taiwanese company Acer has launched a host of new devices. This includes a new laptop, an upgraded 2-in-1, and fresh Iconia-branded Android tablets. The Acer Nitro 5 is a budget gaming laptop, while the Spin 1 convertible gets upgraded processors and more. The addition to the tablet lineup brings Android 7.0 Nougat software with one variant sporting a quantum dot display.

Acer Nitro 5

Starting with the laptop, the Acer Nitro 5 is a gaming laptop with multiple configurations. It includes Intel and AMD processors – up to seventh generation Core i5 and i7 processors for Intel with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics, and seventh generation A-Series FX, A12, and A10 APUs along with up to a discrete Radeon RX 550 graphics chip from AMD. To take care of heating, Acer has introduced a Coolboost technology that delivers heightened fan speeds and cooling ability, and allows users to manually control the cooling process when heavy use requires an added boost. It boasts of a 15.6-inch full-HD display with up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD, and 2TB HDD storage. The keyboard has red back-lighting, and ports include USB 3.1 Type-C, USB 3.1 Type-A, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and HDMI 2.0. The Nitro 5 will arrive in North America in July with prices starting at $799 (roughly Rs. 51,500).

Acer Spin 1
Coming to the upgraded Spin 1 convertible, it now packs new hardware and a sleeker metal design frame. It brings support for up to the latest Intel Celeron and Pentium processors, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and 32GB/ 64GB/ 128GB storage. It sports an 11.6-inch full-HD display with a 360 degree hinge, and weighs only 1.25 kgs. It is rated to offer up to 8 hours of battery life, and ports include USB 3.1 Type-A (gen 1), USB 2.0 Type-A, HDMI, and microSD card slot for memory expansion. It comes with a stylus support on the touchscreen display, and also supports Bluetooth version 4.1. The updated Spin 1 will also arrive in North America in July with prices starting at $329 (roughly Rs. 21,200).

acerspin main Acer

Acer Iconia 10 and Iconia One 10
Lastly, but importantly, the new 10-inch Android tablets that runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. The more premium variant is called the Acer Iconia Tab 10 (A3-A50), and the other is known as the Acer Iconia One 10 (B3-A40FHD). Both the tablets are powered by a MediaTek quad-core processor, and are rated to offer up to eight hours of battery life. Starting with the Iconia 10, it sports a quantum dot display, four speakers, and a built-in sub-woofer for better media consumption. The Iconia One 10 brings more connectivity options with two micro-USB ports. Both the tablets support DTS-HD Premium Sound, and Wireless AC connectivity. Acer did not reveal full specification details of these tablets, and also refrained from announcing pricing and availability.

Her husband, who entered the curtain-walling business straight from university, has boasted of 25 years of ‘practical experience’ on Harley Facades’s website.

Mr and Mrs Bailey were director and secretary of Harley Curtain Wall, which went bust in 2015, owing creditors £1million, according to reports.

A customer demanded £428,000 for disputed work and the company owed £1.18million in total. But it was later bought for £24,900 by Harley Facades Ltd, Mr Bailey’s other firm, which according to its latest accounts has £151,000 in the bank and made £299,000 profit last year.

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Rydon’s CEO Robert Bond (pictured with his wife at a classic car event, and right as a clown on Facebook) said last night the work ‘met all required building regulations’ and was signed off by the council’s building control

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The Rydon CEO has an Aston Martin with a private ‘Bond’ number plate pictured here next to the family’s silver Porsche

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The 27-storey Grenfell building, which was built in 1974 but refurbished last year, has an average of six flats per floor was reclad in a £10m refurbishment completed last year

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Belinda Bailey, pictured on a ski trip, has served as secretary for her husband’s cladding company

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Their mansion has three buildings with a large, covered swimming pool attached to the main house. Four cars including a Land Rover and a Porsche were parked outside

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Harley Facades congratulated themselves on the work they had done at Grenfell on their Facebook page

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This aerial photo taken hours after the fire ripped through the tower block shows the devastating scale of the inferno

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Burning debris falls from a massive fire that raged in a high-rise apartment building in London and killed at least 17

The company, which installed but did not manufacture the panels at Grenfell Tower, said in a statement they were a ‘commonly used product in the refurbishment industry’.

Mr Bailey, 58, said on Wednesday night: ‘This is an incredibly tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the residents and their families who have suffered such a personal loss. We will fully support and co-operate with the investigations into this fire.

‘At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower.’ He was unavailable for further comment yesterday, apparently holed up in his country retreat.

His mansion has three buildings with a large, covered swimming pool attached to the main house. The village of Crowborough is also home to a string of celebrities.

Mr Bailey enjoys skiing and motorsports. He has three sons, twins aged 27 and a 23-year-old.

Away from work, Mrs Bailey appears to own a number of cats and belongs to a breeder’s group on Facebook. Photographs from her profile show her enjoying holidays by the sea and in the Alps. Grenfell Tower was clad last year as part of an £8.6million refurbishment by builders Rydon, whose boss has insisted its work ‘met all required building controls’.

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The charred debris likely from Grenfell’s cladding lies on grass below the tower

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A children’s play area is filled with debris directly under Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate

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Cladding is a material attached to a building’s frame to create an outer wall (shown in this graphic). The process of applying the rain-proof frontage can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation behind it, shown between the first two layers

Councils turned to cladding to meet standards set by Blair government scheme

Cladding became popular as councils sought to meet insulation standards laid out under the Blair Government’s £22billion Decent Homes Programme, which ran from 2000 to 2010.

The programme’s rules dictated that homes should have efficient heating and effective insulation, modern facilities and be in a good state of repair.

For high-rise council blocks, local authorities were faced with either knocking them down, meaning they would have to find or build homes elsewhere, or refurbishing them.

The latter option was much cheaper, despite the millions of pounds then pumped into the scheme.

In London alone, it is believed more than £820million in public funds were paid to contractors to make alterations.

Local authorities turned to cladding the outside of old council house stock, including tower blocks, in a bid to improve the buildings’ appearance and the improve so-called ‘thermal efficiency’ ratings.

A press release by a cladding firm from the time stated: ‘Over-cladding existing homes to improve their energy efficiency as well as aesthetics is proving the solution of choice for local authorities in their bid to meet Decent Homes standards.’

The statement gave examples in Bristol and Lanarkshire where cladding had been used to meet the terms of the programme.

A architect was quoted at the time saying: ‘The main priorities were to eliminate water ingress, improve the thermal efficiency of the blocks, and enhance the physical appearance of the external envelope.’

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Rydon boss Robert Bond lives in the circled £2million mansion with swimming pool on a private estate in Orpington, Kent

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The construction boss and his wife Tina (pictured) appear to enjoy sailing and exotic holidays around the world

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Grenfell Tower before the refurbishment (left) in 2011 and with the new cladding (right)

Chief executive Robert Bond said the work was signed off by the council’s building control officials.

Mr Bond, who has four daughters in their 20s, lives in a £2million mansion on a private estate in Orpington, Kent.

He is believed to own an Aston Martin with a ‘Bond’ number plate. A silver convertible Porsche was parked outside his home yesterday.

His wife Tina answered the door of the property when asked for comment and if her husband was home. She said, ‘Thank you and goodbye’, before closing the door.

The married couple appear to share a love for classic sports cars and have posed together in front of a silver Ferrari.

Mrs Bond’s Facebook account shows the family enjoy a luxury lifestyle, including holidaying on a yacht. One photograph showed her and her daughters posing in bikinis in crystal-clear waters on an exotic holiday to a destination apparently in south-east Asia.

Left, the fire ages through several floors of the Grenfell Tower, centre, the inferno rips through the building towards the top floors and right, firefighters attempt to battle the flames on Wednesday morning

Cladding company has covered six other blocks in panels ‘that went up like a matchstick’ in London ALONE

Fears are growing for hundreds of families living in tower blocks after it was revealed the firm which supplied the panels at the centre of the west London inferno has also carried out similar work across the capital.

Grenfell Tower was equipped with overcladding by East Sussex-based company Harley Facades Limited in a contract valued at £2.6 million.

It has since come to light that the firm has used a similar aluminium composite material (ACM) to clad several high rises and public buildings throughout the UK, raising fears for the safety of thousands of other residents.

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Ferrier Point left), a 23-storey block with 115 flats in Newham, east London, was clad in an aluminium composite material in 2015. Four 23-storey tower blocks in Camden, north London (pictured right) were refurbished with the cladding at a cost of £16million

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Castlemaine Tower (pictured left), a 23-storey block in Battersea, south London, was clad and refurbished by the firm in 2014, as was Clements Court (right) in Hounslow, west London

Four 23-storey tower blocks in Camden, north London were refurbished with the cladding at a cost of £16million, as was Ferrier Point, a 23-storey block with 115 flats in Newham, east London, in 2015.

Six tower blocks in Harrow, northwest London, were given the rainproof cladding when it was refurbished in 2015 in a contract worth £3.5million, as was the 13-storey Merit House, home to 114 flats in Barnet, north London.

Castlemaine Tower, a 23-storey block in Battersea, south London, was clad and refurbished by the firm in 2014, as was Clements Court in Hounslow, west London.

The material is set to be at the centre of an investigation into fire safety after witnesses claimed it ‘went up like a matchstick’, helping spreading the fire from the fourth floor to the roof in just 15 minutes.

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Six tower blocks in Harrow, northwest London (left), were given the rainproof cladding when it was refurbished in 2015 in a contract worth £3.5million, as was the 13-storey Merit House (shown right), home to 114 flats in Barnet, north London

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Pictured: The new plastic cladding hangs charred and melted underneath the windows of the Grenfell tower in west London

The £8.6million refurbishment by Rydon and the cladding by Harley Facades will be key issues at the public inquiry into the blaze. Westminster City Council said Harley Facades also supplied cladding for its Little Venice Estate.

But a spokesman said: ‘There is no reason to believe the type of cladding is the same as that used at Grenfell Tower.

‘Having today reviewed all records we are reassured that the cladding fully complies with all fire and safety requirements and underwent stringent checks before being certified by Building Control. However, as a precaution, we have instructed independent specialists to carry out urgent checks.’

‘We do listen’ says boss of company which manages Grenfell Tower

Maintenance firm responsible for Grenfell paid £11M by taxpayer

The company responsible for the safety and maintenance of the block of flats which turned into a raging inferno and killed at least 17 people was paid £11million last year from taxpayer’s money.

Grenfell Tower is owned by the borough council in Kensington and Chelsea, but the management of the building is the responsibility of an independent company – Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO).

Speaking to Nina Hossain on ITV News London the company’s boss Robert Black said: ‘We are in complete shock and condolences for what’s happened today. Our thoughtS are with everybody that is currently affected and still affected.’

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Robert Black (left) who is Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation’s Chief Executive and in charge of the management of Grenfell Tower and Andrew Goldman from Rydon Construction who appeared on TV this morning admitting he did not know the exact details of the materials used in the revamp of the block of flars

The doomed block of flats underwent a £10million refurbishment which were completed in May last year which was overseen by Rydon Construction.

After a day of finger-pointing and revelations residents had spent years lobbying over safety concerns, a massive investigation has been launched and experts are predicting it could lead to a prosecution.

Those in the firing line are the council, who own the property and send people to live there, KCTMO who are responsible for maintaining Grefnell Tower and Rydon who installed cladding as part of their refurbishment.

The Health and Safety Executive, the police and the fire service are now expected to launch a large-scale investigation and Rachel Adamson, Head of Regulatory Law at Stephensons law firm, said for an incident of this size it is very likely they will be considering criminal charges.

Residents say they told former KCMOT worker Siobhan Rumble (right) of their safety concerns, but claim their warnings were overlooked in the building that is owned by Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council, whose Chief Executive is pictured left

She told MailOnline: ‘Corporate manslaughter charges are often quite difficult to prove as they relate to the controlling mind of the business.

‘If an individual is thought to have been negligent, a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence may be considered.

‘There are a range of other potential charges, such as breach of fire regulations or breach of health and safety regulations, these are the tiers down from manslaughter.’

Investigators are expected to look at how recent renovation work was carried out, whether Construction Regulations have been adhered to, and what fire safety precautions were in place.

More than one resident has claimed that there was no central fire alarm system for the tower block – or it had failed – and only smoke alarms in individual flats were working.

There are also claims that there that there was no central sprinkler system – or it was also not working properly during the fire.

Others have claimed that the new cladding encasing the block added during last year’s £10million refurbishment by Rydon Construction caught alight ‘like a matchstick’.

Checks are to be carried out on tower blocks going through similar refurbishment to Grenfell Tower, policing and fire minister Nick Hurd has said.

The shoes are believed to have been worn by Princess Diana when she was working as a kindergarten assistant

A pair of shoes, thought to have been worn by Princess Diana when she was a nursery assistant, have fetched £1,800 at auction.

The white leather, flat, peep-toe shoes had been expected to fetch up to £500.

A note from the princess, discussing meditation and French philosophy, written on Kensington Palace notepaper, made £1,400 at the sale in Cirencester.

A candid letter written by the Prince of Wales days after his separation from the princess made £360.

Dominic Winter Auctioneers described the shoes as having been left at the London house of an anonymous friend of Princess Diana in about 1977-78.

There are photographs of her wearing similar shoes while working as a kindergarten teacher aged about 19, they added.

She was 20 when she and Prince Charles married on 29 July 1981.

Image captionThe auction included a letter from Princess Diana, written on Kensington Palace letterhead, to the couple’s friend and interior designer Dudley Poplak

A candid letter written by Prince Charles in December 1992 on Royal Yacht Britannia-crested paper, was sent to interior designer Dudley Poplak two days after the formal separation of Charles and Diana had been announced.

In it he revealed his hopes of being appreciated “after I am dead” and how “awful” it had been living through “all the misinterpretation and the flak”.

Three other letters written by Prince Charles made between £230 and £320.

HIGHLIGHTS

It has about 7,000 techies to design & power semiconductor chips in India

World’s leading chip maker Intel Corporation is investing Rs. 1,100 crores ($170 million) in India to set up a new Research and Development (R&D) centre in this tech hub, said an official on Wednesday.

“We are investing Rs. 1,100 crores in our upcoming R&D centre in Bengaluru as part of our India expansion plans,” said Intel India General Manager Nivruti Rai at a news conference on the US-based multinational’s investment and expansion plans in the sub-continent.

The new R&D facility in an eight-acre campus is expected to generate about 3,000 jobs over the next 18 months. It will also have a computer software development and hardware design services facility.

The fresh investment is in addition to $2 billion (roughly Rs. 12,852 crores) the chip maker had invested in the country till 2016.

The company’s Indian subsidiary has about 7,000 techies to design and power semiconductor chips for its global customers, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of computers, smart phones and other electronic devices.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and IT Minister Priyank Kharge were also present on the occasion.

The state high-level clearance committee, headed by the Chief Minister, cleared the company’s investment proposal on February 1, 2016 and the Karnataka Industrial Development Board allocated it the land in the city’s south-east suburb.

The company’s India operations focus on R&D, hardware design, testing and validation of computer hardware and software products for the next-generation digital devices.

The Intel India arm is registered with the state-run Software Technology Park India (STPI) under the 100 percent export oriented unit scheme of the government.